Renault CEO, Luca de Meo, has been brutally honest about the performance of the Alpine team, a subsidiary of the French automotive giant. Renault recently announced its decision to cease the production of Formula 1 engines, much to the disappointment of the staff at the Viry-Châtillon factory. De Meo justified his decision by pointing out that Alpine has underperformed in recent years. “The team is embarrassing itself,” said the Italian executive.
“It’s a very emotional subject, even for me,” De Meo confessed to the French sports newspaper, L’Équipe. “It saddens me greatly, but this is the result of months of observation. In my role, I can’t think like a fan. I’m a manager. I’m at the helm of a publicly traded company. Unfortunately, that means I have to reconsider the Formula 1 project in order to win.”
Renault CEO Discusses Team’s Recent Struggles
“So then you have to look at what you can change in the short term,” continued the Renault CEO in a serious tone. “The team has become invisible in recent years. Two more years like this and the whole project would have gotten out of hand,” he referred to the disappointing results of the last few years. “We have been in decline for three seasons. Something really had to be done about that. And fortunately, most fans ultimately come for the racing team, not for the engine.”
‘Alpine Embarrasses Itself’
Luca de Meo further stated that Alpine has delivered too little in recent years to be able to maintain its own engine factory. The Renault facility in Viry-Châtillon is being converted into a ‘center for street car technology’ for this reason. “Alpine is in a slump,” he explained. “My shareholders also see that, the team is not making money. With P16 and P17 we are simply embarrassing ourselves. The well-known slogan ‘the marketing will pay it all back’ also does not apply.”
Concerns Over New Engine Regulations for 2026
Finally, the Renault CEO mentioned that the new engine regulations for 2026 are a huge cost for the company. “I prefer to compare the new regulations to a kind of Frankenstein – a compromise between the demands of each manufacturer,” he concluded. “As a result, development costs have risen exponentially. We keep future engine regulations in mind, but also want to be able to focus on other projects.”
